I am struggling with a relapse of OCD after years of feeling much better with CBT and Sertraline. I took Sertraline for 7 years and stopped a few months ago, but found my OCD has come back as strong as ever. I have since resumed the medication by titrating back up to what will hopefully be a helpful dosage (under the supervision of my doctor), but I would like to know if anyone else has had a similar issue of relapse after stopping an SSRI. Additionally, did anyone find that resuming the same drug was effective in returning them to their previous baseline? I am new to NOCD and look forward to getting started with my new therapist in March. Thanks for any and all responses in advanced!

I first sought help for SO-OCD in 2017 after a sudden onset of the thought, "what if I'm gay?" I had been reading an online college fiction story that included a sex scene with two women, and that idea sent me into a spiral of sleepless weeks (literally), constantly checking my level of attraction to women, comparing it to my attraction to men, reevaluating past events, checking to see if my physical behaviors were "straight." It was awful. Fortunately I found help online when I realized that I wasn't alone and that countless others found themselves obsessing over a "sudden change" in their orientation. I was able to get therapy, though out of network and very expensive, and worked through CBT/ERP to overcome my most significant challenges. After about a year, through therapy and eventually on my own (costs, again smh) I felt I'd successfully managed my SO-OCD and experienced no distress on the rare occasion a thought did come to pass. Now, 5 years later, I've found myself back in familiar territory. I can't figure out what the trigger was here, and I've been experiencing immense distress as my brain constantly throws doubtful thoughts my way, and I unfortunately do my mental checks of reviewing memories, seeking online reassurance, and trying to "prove" to myself what is true by constantly thinking about proof one way or the other. Has anyone else experienced a spike after a long time of having managed their SO-OCD? And if so, was it difficult to get back on the recovery track? Is it normal to backslide like this?

Has anyone had experience coming off an antidepressant and how it affects your OCD? I’ve been on antidepressants for years for depression and anxiety and recently made the decision to go off of them. It seems like since I’ve been working off of them, the intrusive thoughts and worries have been increasing. Another time when I previously tried stopping it the thoughts became so bad I was physically ill and ended up in the ER. I’ve seen before that SSRIs/SNRIs can be used too treat OCD, but I’ve never taken them for that purpose. Has anyone else had a similar experience of going off their antidepressant and their OCD symptoms increasing?

I was curious if anyone has had a similar situation. I have been on Sertraline for a year now and I've essentially been OCD free the whole time which has been wonderful but because of the extremely low libido my phychiatrist prescribed Wellbutrin as an adjunct to the Sertraline. I tried this once before 2 years ago when I was on Escitalipram but after a week I felt way more anxious and figured it was from the Wellbutrin and went off. I decided to try it again this time as I thought maybe it would be different with Sertraline. Again exactly on the 7th day I started having intrusive thoughts. I decided to stop taking it because I do not want to go back to that place after a year of being OCD free. I stopped yesterday morning and today I still had a couple thoughts this morning. I really hope I didn't just mess everything up in my brain and now my OCD is coming back.